Xfinity takes out Ookla’s US broadband report

The major city with the fastest fixed broadband in the United States is Kansas City, with the fastest state being New Jersey, according to Ookla.

Ookla’s 2018 US Fixed Report, published on Wednesday, measured speeds from 24.3 million unique users, 66.7 million samples, 115.5 million tests, and 3.2 million data points.

Xfinity was the fastest, with an Ookla “speed score” of 104.67, followed by Verizon — whose FiOS fiber-optic network reached speeds of 8Gbps in a trial of NGPON2 technology across its live network in October — on 102.57.

Cox was third, with a speed score of 101.84; Spectrum fourth, with 87.56; AT&T Internet fifth, with 76; and CenturyLink sixth, with 28.32.

The top five fastest major cities across the nation were Kansas City with its Google Fiber providing mean download speeds of 159.19Mbps and mean upload speeds of 127.03Mbps; Austin, Texas, also with Google Fiber at 143.66Mbps down/70.65Mbps up; Lubbock, Texas, with Suddenlink at 141.48/26.98Mbps; Raleigh, North Carolina, with Google Fiber at 137.7/75.62Mbps; and San Antonio, Texas, with Grande Communications at 133.86/49.86Mbps.

Rounding out the top 10 cities were Lincoln, Nebraska, on Allo at 132/105Mbps; San Francisco, California, on Sonic at 131/69Mbps; Boston, Massachusetts, on Verizon at 131/46Mbps; Henderson, Nevada, on Cox at 131/23Mbps; and Charlotte, North Carolina, on Google Fiber at 128/66Mbps.

Ookla said the slowest five major cities in the US were Memphis, Tennessee, with XFinity on 44/12Mbps; Laredo, Texas, with Spectrum on 55/8Mbps; Toledo, Ohio, with Buckeye CableSystem on 59/10Mbps; Cleveland, Ohio, with Spectrum on 61/21Mbps; and Buffalo, New York, also with Spectrum on 65/17Mbps.

The state with the fastest average broadband speeds according to Ookla’s report was New Jersey, with a mean download speed of 121.45Mbps and upload speed of 56.50Mbps, and Verizon taking out the fastest speeds for the state.

It was followed by Massachusetts with RCN on 117/38Mbps; Maryland with Verizon on 117/63Mbps; Delaware with Xfinity on 114/48Mbps; Hawaii with Spectrum on 114/27Mbps; the District of Columbia with Verizon and RCN equally ranked to provide mean speeds of 109/53Mbps; Nevada with Cox on 109/24Mbps; Texas with Suddenlink on 106/39Mbps; Washington with Xfinity on 106/25Mbps; and Rhode Island with Verizon on 105/63Mbps.

Xfinity also provided the fastest speeds in Colorado, California, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Oregon, West Virginia, and Oklahoma; Verizon provided the fastest speeds in New York and Virginia; Cox took out Arizona and Oklahoma; and Spectrum was fastest in South Carolina, Kentucky, Montana, Wyoming, and Maine.

Google Fiber’s limited rollout means it only provided the fastest speeds in the states of Utah, Kansas, and Missouri; while AT&T Internet was fastest in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

The slowest states according to Ookla were Maine, at 50/9Mbps; Wyoming, at 51/14Mbps; Montana, at 55/15Mbps; Idaho, at 56/17Mbps; and Vermont, at 60/36Mbps.

“With gigabit expanding across the nation, fixed broadband speeds in the United States are rapidly increasing. Speedtest data reveals a 35.8 percent increase in mean download speed during the last year and a 22 percent increase in upload speed,” Ookla said.

“As a result, the US ranks seventh in the world for download speed, between Hungary and Switzerland. The US ranks 27th for upload, between Bulgaria and Canada, during Q2-Q3 2018.

“Though 5G looms on the mobile horizon, fixed broadband speeds in the US continue to outpace those on mobile, showing both faster speeds and greater increases in speed.”

AT&T will deploy 5G services in a dozen markets by late 2018, with plans to extend its 5G Evolution advanced LTE from 23 to ‘hundreds’ of metro areas while also expanding AT&T Fiber to 82 metros by mid-2019.